Courtesy of Olmo (catone82), I’d like to share some images he scanned from a hard-to-find copy of the German version of Mattel’s 1984 dealer catalog. All of the images he shared feature hand-painted finalized prototypes with beautiful matte paint jobs.
Whiplash
In this image we can clearly see that Whiplash has been put together using some donor arms from Skeletor, as seen in the paint wear on his hand. The early Whiplash prototype is shown elsewhere with a purple spear (it was orange in the final toy). This one instead features the “Man-E-Weapons” brown sword.
Buzz-Off
On the Buzz-Off prototype below, we can see that Mattel cast his legs using a pink material, and his wings are cast in clear plastic with an uneven yellow paint job. His eyes are painted metallic blue rather than the metallic green used on the production figure. This photo appears to have been image flipped – Buzz-Off’s open claw should be on his left. Buzz-Off features the “Man-E-Weapons” axe, rather than the modified axe he would eventually come with.
Mekaneck
On the Mekaneck prototype below, we can see that he has been hand painted with a combination of matte and metallic paints.
Webstor
This is another beautiful hand-painted prototype. The fact that it’s hand-painted is most evident in the area around the leg joints. For some reason Webstor is holding one of Trap Jaw‘s attachments in his left hand.
Mer-Man
You can see the paint coming off on Mer-Man‘s hands and sword, which were cast in a white material. His paint job appears more blue than green in the photo, although that could easily be the lighting distorting the color. Interestingly he lacks the green belt, which was present on first release Mer-Man figures, but not in later figures.
Stratos
This early prototype Stratos features a chest from He-Man rather than Beast Man, and lacks the feathery detailing on his harness. He appears to have been cast in a gray (correction, flesh-colored) material.
Teela
This early Teela prototype appears to be unarticulated, with a greater level of detail on her costume and shield than the production toy. She features white tops on her boots, and a golden spear and shield.
Thanks again to Olmo for sharing these images with me!
Great scans! Haven‘t seen them before here in Germany! The colors in those are even more vibrant than in the mass-produced figures. Thanks Battle Ram , Olmo!
yeah, looks like at least the Teela is a kinda standard resin prototypes. Resin holds the details much greater then plastic used in normal production versions. Kinda interesting that they are still using shots of prototypes of some figures which have been out for a while at this point
Thanks for the insight, MM. I would be really curious to know if someone out there still owns that Teela prototype. If someone does, I hope it’s someone in Tony Guerrero’s family, since he sculpted it.
yeah.. I only know of the location of 3 prototypes (A Toyfare hardcopy of Mantisaur,, another hardcopy of Horde Tropper, and a test shot of Two-bad (test shots are mostly fairly bland cause they pretty much use final molds) and the mattel inhouse letter opener.. That one is pretty nice..
You said that the Stratos figure appears to have been cast in a gray material but, it appears to me that there is some paint wear on his right leg near the joint and on the toe tip of his boot.
Yes, you’re right, I’m not sure what I was thinking. It actually looks more fleshtone.